CENTOGENE Opens Walk-In COVID-19 Testing Facility at Düsseldorf Airport

* CENTOGENE expands its SARS-CoV-2 testing solution to Düsseldorf Airport after successfully launching walk-In COVID-19 test facilities at Frankfurt and Hamburg Airport
* Company’s PCR tests now available for passengers departing from or arriving at Düsseldorf Airport, as well as to the general public
* Expansion of testing to Düsseldorf Airport further paves the way towards a new normal for our communities and economies
 
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. and ROSTOCK & BERLIN, Germany, September 23, 2020─ Centogene N.V. (Nasdaq: CNTG), a commercial-stage company focused on rare diseases that transforms real-world clinical and genetic data into actionable information for patients, physicians, and pharmaceutical companies, announced today the opening of its new COVID-19 testing facility at Düsseldorf Airport.
 
CENTOGENE now also provides its test solution for the detection of the SARS-Cov-2 virus at Düsseldorf Airport. In addition to departing travelers who need a valid coronavirus test result at their destination, as well as arriving passengers at Düsseldorf Airport, the general public in the Düsseldorf area can also get tested. The COVID-19 test facility is open from 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. and located centrally in Terminal C of Düsseldorf Airport. People interested in taking a SARS-CoV-2 test can register directly at the test facility without needing an appointment and can conveniently get a sample taken via throat swab. The results will be delivered within 24 hours through CENTOGENE’s secure digital platform. For more information, please visit https://www.centogene.com/covid-19/test-centers/duesseldorf-airport.html.
 
“With our new COVID-19 testing facility at Düsseldorf Airport, we build on our experience from Frankfurt and Hamburg Airport, where we have successfully carried out hundreds of thousands of tests since June. The demand for COVID-19 testing remains high, and we are convinced that the obligatory quarantine following international air travel will massively affect global travelling which, in turn, contributes essentially to the efficiency of our economy. In fact, without the alternative option of a Corona test, a quarantine obligation is tantamount to a complete shutdown of business travels of any kind,” said Dr. Volkmar Weckesser, Chief Information Officer von CENTOGENE. “The cooperation with Düsseldorf Airport brings the advantages of a comprehensive test solution, which is placed locally, and therefore, readily available to North Rhine Westphalia – efficiently adding to containing the pandemic. Broad, preventive testing is the only option that enables the detection and breaking of chains of infections, and ultimately, paves the way to a new normal.”
 
“We are convinced that expanding existing testing capacities, as opposed to getting rid of testing options for travelers returning from risk countries from October onwards and dismantling the successfully established test infrastructure at the airports, is the only reasonable way. We are therefore delighted about the opening of the new test center at Düsseldorf Airport. The data obtained through testing can also make a significant contribution to reacting to the current infection situation with targeted and appropriate measures. Lufthansa and CENTOGENE are continuously expanding their capacities, and their cooperation serves as a benchmark for a successful test solution,” said Christina Foerster, Lufthansa Group Customer, IT & Corporate Responsibility Board Member.
 
CENTOGENE’s COVID-19 test facility is open to anybody who wants to get tested - traveling or not. The Company strongly believes that the complete digitalization, which is now connected to the Corona-Warn-App, is the only effective way to deliver SARS-CoV-2 tests that are easy to handle and quickly available. The process is supported by an innovative, digital solution that allows the customer to easily register, order, and download their test results via a smartphone or computer.
 
A Complete Testing Solution
 
CENTOGENE’s SARS-CoV-2 test is a molecular diagnostic test performed for the in vitro qualitative detection of RNA from the SARS-CoV-2 in oropharyngeal samples from presymptomatic patients and probands according to the recommended testing by public health authority guidelines. The test has also been validated in CENTOGENE's CAP / CLIA / ISO certified analytical laboratory and has received Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) by the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for use by authorized laboratories. The samples are taken by medically trained personnel using a CentoSwab™, a CE-labelled two-component dry plastic swab for oropharyngeal swab sampling. The samples are then brought to a CENTOGENE laboratory for testing. Test results are delivered to the test center visitors via CENTOGENE’s Corona Test Portal – a secure digital platform following stringent data privacy measures in compliance with the current specifications of GDPR (German Data Protection Regulation ‘Datenschutzgrundverordnung’) and Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). The portal is connected to the Corona warn app.
 
Please also visit https://www.centogene.com to see the latest testing statistics from Frankfurt airport or for further information.
 
About CENTOGENE
CENTOGENE engages in diagnosis and research around rare diseases transforming real-world clinical and genetic data into actionable information for patients, physicians, and pharmaceutical companies. Our goal is to bring rationality to treatment decisions and to accelerate the development of new orphan drugs by using our extensive rare disease knowledge, including epidemiological and clinical data, as well as innovative biomarkers. CENTOGENE has developed a global proprietary rare disease platform based on our real-world data repository with approximately 3.0 billion weighted data points from over 530,000 patients representing over 120 different countries as of March 31, 2020.
 
The Company’s platform includes epidemiologic, phenotypic, and genetic data that reflects a global population, and also a biobank of these patients’ blood samples. CENTOGENE believes this represents the only platform that comprehensively analyzes multi-level data to improve the understanding of rare hereditary diseases, which can aid in the identification of patients and improve our pharmaceutical partners’ ability to bring orphan drugs to the market. As of March 31, 2020, the Company collaborated with 39 pharmaceutical partners covering over 45 different rare diseases.